Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Johnson has made nine Sprint Cup Series starts at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where he has earned three top-five and six top-10 finishes.

The 1.5-mile track is one of only four venues on which the Sprint Cup Series competes that Johnson hasn’t visited Victory Lane. (Michigan, Chicago, Watkins Glen, Homestead)

Johnson has completed 94.1% (2265 of 2408) of competition laps at the venue and has led 71.

He has an average start and finish of 19.3 and 12.7.

Chassis
Johnson will pilot chassis No. 580 in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race. He last drove that car to a third-place result at Auto Club Speedway in October.
Johnson drove back up chassis No. 558 from a first-place starting spot to Victory Lane at Dover International Speedway in September.

JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTESDID YOU LEARN ANYTHING FROM 2004 OR 2005 TO HELP YOU THIS SEASON?: “In both instances, kind of different routes to get to this same opinion, it’s not over until the last lap at Homestead. Clearly the 97 (Kurt Busch) losing his wheel mid-race at Homestead led us to believe that it was maybe our day and that things were going to work out. The green-white-checkered run to the finish at the end, I don’t think the green-white-checkered was in play at that time and he was the car behind me when it counts – the 97 and he wins the championship. That one proved to me that it’s not over until the last lap. At Homestead, with the 20 (Tony Stewart) car, we blow a tire and wreck and the 20 needed to finish like in the top-25 or something if we did things right. We had a great evening going and the 20 ran terrible. I still kick myself today for not coming to pit road, not getting the tire off the car because I felt like I had a problem and it was slowing down my pace and maybe we could have recovered from going down a lap and put more pressure on the 20 and come back and finish like we needed to, but we didn’t. I know that if we stay in the game till the last lap at Homestead, we will have a chance. That’s my mindset off of those two examples.”

WHAT DO YOU SAY TO PEOPLE WHO QUESTION YOUR PERFORMANCE AT HOMESTEAD? “I’m not sure why that’s even relevant. If you look at points accumulated over the course of the Chase, I think that will speak volumes as to what type of Chase took place. I know we’ve been competitive, but not as dominant as we wanted to all year long. We’ve got to go down there and race for it; there’s no doubt about it. I continue to hear that the No. 48 hasn’t had to race for it before and we’ve raced for it all Chase long.

“Maybe at Homestead we’ve been able to protect, but we certainly know that’s not the case this year and I love where we are. I love putting pressure on these guys and in fact I’m glad we cut their lead in half.”

I KNOW YOU DON’T LIKE TO TALK ABOUT YOURSELF IN THESE TERMS, DO YOU THINK YOUR GREATNESS CAN BE SOLIDIFIED WITH A COME FROM BEHIND CHAMPIONSHIP? “You know, it would probably be received better than the ones in the past, with the runaway show we’ve had on a couple of them. I don’t care how I win it. However we win it, that’s cool (laughter). I would love to come back and win from behind and eliminate that stat because that seems to be the only thing that everyone talks about right now.

“When I look at the way we started the Chase, I’m more frustrated at what we did then, in the fact we didn’t capitalize at Loudon. Last week we missed a pit call late in the race. Everybody behind us had tires on. We ended up ninth. When you go back through the season, look at little things, we’ve left points on the table. That’s unlike us from years past. That’s the part we’re fighting right now.”

SPRINT CUP SERIES CAREER NOTESCareer Wins

Johnson has 53 wins in his Sprint Cup Series career, his most recent coming at Dover International Speedway on Sept. 26, 2010.

Johnson has won at least three Cup races a season since he posted his first victory in 2002. He is the only driver in the modern era to win at least three races in each of his first eight full-time seasons.

Johnson has won Sprint Cup Series races at all but four (Michigan, Chicago, Watkins Glen, Homestead) of the 22 tracks on which the series competes.

Johnson was the first driver to win three of the first five races in The Chase.

Johnson’s 10 wins in 2007 was the highest number recorded in a single season since Jeff Gordon posted 13 victories in 1998.

The four-consecutive wins scored by the No. 48 team in the 2007 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup ties a modern-era NASCAR record.

Career Poles

Johnson has collected 25 poles in his Sprint Cup career.

The championship driver has earned at least one pole a year since his first full-time season in 2002.

He had a career-high six poles in 2008.

Johnson’s most recent pole position was at Dover International Speedway on Sept. 24, 2010.

Career Starts

In 35 2010 starts, Johnson has collected six wins, 16 top five and 22 top-10 finishes.

Johnson has finished in the top five in the Sprint Cup Series point standings each year since his first full season in 2002.

Johnson is the only driver to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup every year since the format was adopted in 2004.

Joey Logano (No. 22 Pennzoil Ford)· One top five, two top 10s; one pole· Average finish of 12.3· Average Running Position of 13.8, seventh-best· Driver Rating of 87.5, 11th-best· Average Green Flag Speed of 170.111 mph, 12th-fastest